Recipe | Vegetable Baked Ziti

By Kiersten | Last Updated: March 25, 2014

This January marks the eighth year that I’ve been doing Weight Watchers. While my weight has fluctuated since reaching my goal and I’m now actively trying to lose weight again, I really feel like it was joining Weight Watchers that prompted me to learn how to cook and get creative in the kitchen. Because before Weight Watchers? Our meals were pretty much take out, stir fry or pasta.

Pasta showed up on the menu at least once a week. I’d make a whole box (!!!) and my husband and I would split it. He’d put lots of sauce on his, while I’d put a little bit of sauce and a mountain of grated Parmesan on mine. I was under the impression that a ginormous bowl of pasta was a typical serving–after all, that’s what most restaurants serve, right? It was a shock to find out that those big boxes of pasta that my husband and I were eating by ourselves are meant to serve eight people. Oops.

One of the first changes I made when I joined Weight Watchers was downsizing those pasta portions. But clearly, two ounces of pasta alone just wasn’t going to cut it. So I started adding vegetables to our pasta. Lots of them. This makes that paltry two ounces of pasta go much further. And you know what? It tastes so much better that way too. Using this same philosophy, I revamped my baked ziti recipe, something I occasionally made pre-Weight Watchers–my original version had massive amounts of cheese and pasta. This version, Vegetable Baked Ziti, has a smaller amount of reduced-fat cheese and fat-free ricotta mixed in to give the casserole a creamy texture. By adding lots of sauteed veggies, each serving contains less than two ounces of pasta. But it’s so good, you won’t miss that extra pasta or cheese at all!Go to Vegetable Baked Ziti recipe

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add zucchini and mushrooms and cook until softened and liquid has boiled off, about 7 minutes more. Remove from heat.

Add pasta, marinara sauce, ricotta, salt, and pepper to skillet with vegetables. Stir until well combined.

Pour pasta mixture into baking dish. Top with cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley before serving, if desired.

Made this on a whim tonight and it tasted fantastic. I cut the amount of cheese roughly in 1/2, and also broiled the whole thing for about 5 minutes at the end, until the top layer was nice and crispy.

The recipe looks great!! I plan to try it this weekend. Thanks for sharing all your recipes, I just joined weight watchers and taking pasta off the menu was a sad thing for me so am soo happy to see you successfully can have pasta without overdoing!! Thanks again!!

Made this for my friends last weekend! They absolutely loved it!! I was very pleased with how easy it was to make this! Much to my dismay though, there was no leftovers has the boys ate it all!! Argh!! 😉

Usually the edges of baked pasta dishes like this come out a bit hard, but if it’s way too hard, I’d say try a different baking dish. Maybe switch to a metal dish if you were using glass, as metal can get a bit hotter. You could also try covering the dish with foil to keep moisture in, and then uncovering during the last 10 or so minutes of baking, just to get a little browning. I hope that help!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

New Recipes Every Week!Get email updates from Oh My Veggies

About

Oh, hello! Welcome to Oh My Veggies, a vegetarian food blog with a focus on easy recipes made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. We're all about unfussy, delicious meals that anyone can make. When your food tastes good, you focus on what's on your plate, not what's missing from it! About Oh My Veggies

This site is monetized through the use of affiliate links. This means that if you were to make a purchase through one of these links, Oh My Veggies would receive a small percentage of the sale price. Thanks for your support!